


Rookie in Rome

by Cocoa_N_Donuts



Series: Blackhill Week 2018 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blackhill Week, Blackhill Week 2018, Day 7: Anastasia AU, F/F, Or How I Met the Tsarina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 14:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13526016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocoa_N_Donuts/pseuds/Cocoa_N_Donuts
Summary: "Maria blinked at her in confusion, before jumping out of the bed and drawing her gun.The Black Widow chuckled even more, clearly enjoying the upper hand she held over Maria even as she raised her arms in mock surrender. “I like you. I’m going to keep you.”"Maria is a baby agent, Natasha the last living descendant of the Imperial Romanova line. This is the story of how they met.





	Rookie in Rome

**Author's Note:**

> Again, changed the prompt because I just wasn't feeling the Day 7 one. 
> 
> I’d like to think that rookie Maria was once a fumbling baby agent, too. Also, I can’t conform to canon if I don’t quite like it, right? Like the pairing, not how the shows are filmed. Bite me. 
> 
> Oh, and headcanon? Natasha fell for Maria the moment they met.

_31 January 2011, Helicarrier, SHIELD_

“The Romanov line lives on. Our intelligence has it that Anastasia Nikolaevna managed to escape the Bolsheviks and continue the Imperial Romanova line. And now, our sources have found her location. You, Agent Hill, are to bring her into SHIELD, where we can make the appropriate safety arrangements for her.

No one but SHIELD quite knows where she is, so it should be a simple retrieval mission. We aren’t expecting many hostiles, but with her political influence in Russia and the surrounding area, it is imperative that we secure her safely before anyone else gets to her. You’d be surprised at how blurred national boundaries can get after fitting a historical lens onto things.” Fury clarifies.

Maria blinks, “With all due respect, sir, this is a very important mission. I’m sure there are other agents who are more senior than me available for the job. Shouldn’t you be sending a more senior team just to be safe?”

“Our main objective is stealth and extraction, Hill. A team would be too intimidating for the Grand Duchess, so we’re hoping that a level-headed feminine touch might put her more at ease than the hard-headed approaches of our male agents. You will also be connected to an informant on location. Barring seniority, you are also one of our most outstanding field agents… Unless you feel unworthy of this mission?”

Damn Fury for appealing to her competitive side.

“Sir, no, sir!” As the words left her lips, she immediately regretted her overly militaristic tone.

Fury didn’t smile, but his eyes crinkled at the sides, “Always the perfect soldier, Hill. I knew we hired you for a reason. You will find a more extensive mission brief with Agent Coulson, your handler for this mission. Meet him at 1500 in the conference room. Dismissed.”  

She resisted the urge to snap to attention and salute, proud of her formal nod as she retreated from Fury’s office. She still found it hard to shrug off the habits picked up in the military even after a year in SHIELD.

Fury only shook his head as he watched the stiff back of his favourite junior agent leave his office.

 

* * *

 

Coulson was excellent at giving mission brief, succinct with the right amount of pertinent information. She took mental notes just in case she found herself in the position to give one. He handed her a device that she could only describe as a highly sophisticated and portable blood sugar meter.

“This device has been programmed with all the DNA of the Romanov family as we can gather from their remains. It will analyse any DNA sample and let you know the possibility of any persons with the Russian Imperial bloodline. Find the missing Grand Duchess, and bring her in, agent.” He went on to detail her contact (Pablo, in a certain café not 20 steps away from the Colosseo in Rome) and the details of the entire mission.  Her assigned handler was Agent Smith, she eyes him a little, satisfied at what she sees, and shakes his hand.

After she was dismissed, she readied herself for the mission (loaded up on minimal ammo, perfected her outfit—civilian, casual, but battle ready.)

She was dropped off in the outskirts of Rome in a quinjet, and even though everything went as smoothly as it could, Maria still kept her guard up, for the mission was going far too smoothly. Pablo was the most fabulous waiter in the café, and after making contact with her, yelled at his crew that he was going for a smoke break, before leading her to a motel right above the café. There, he knocked on the second room to the left, poked his head in, muttering in Italian something that sounded suspiciously like, “A cute girl is here to see you. In the day, Natalia? Lucky you.” Before standing out of the way for Maria to enter.

Something about the exchange unnerved Maria, and she eyed Pablo guardedly before sliding into the doorway. Clever arrangement of the furniture meant that Maria had to step within the room to fully see its inhabitants. The moment she did, she came face to face with a gun trained on her head, and Pablo slammed the door shut behind her, yelling a carefree “Have fun!”.

Maria cursed inwardly. It was a rookie mistake that she should have known to avoid, despite having only cleared for field missions four months ago.

If this was going to be her last moment alive, Maria decided she was going to go down with dignity. Scanning her opponent, she found startlingly green eyes that contrasted sharply with the reddish bangs that partially covered the woman’s face. She was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, completely relaxed, and holding a pistol almost loosely in her left hand.

“Hello, beautiful,’ the woman’s voice dripped with husky appeal, asks, “Who are you, and why are you here?”

To Maria, it made no sense.

“Who are _you?_ Where is the Grand Duchess? What did you do to her? SHIELD won’t let you off if you harmed her. _I_ won’t let you off.” Even as Maria said those words, she realised…

_Crap. The Duchess wasn’t already dead, was she? Maria hadn’t already failed her first solo mission  within an hour of being deployed?_

Trying to stifle her internal panic, Maria tries to reach for the pistol holstered at the back of her jeans.

“Nuh-uh, Милая моя, hands where I can see them,”

The woman made a show of cocking her gun, moved forward, and a glimmer of reflected light bounced into Maria’s line of sight—it was from a necklace with a pendant of blood red, shaped in the shape of an hourglass. Maria’s eyes widened with recognition.

The Black Widow.

_But… what is she doing here?_

“Who hired you? Where is the Grand Duchess? What do you want with her?”

Her words only accomplished in putting a shit-eating smirk on the Black Widow’s face, “Such fear in your eyes, yet such courage. I see that you finally recognised who I am, rookie. Any last words?”

This was it. This was the end of Maria’s line. She just graduated from SHIELD training and was going to die before she could finish her first solo mission. She allowed herself some self-pity, before deciding that she was not going down without a fight. She was not going to win, but she’ll die trying—for her mission, and for the Grand Duchess’ safety.

Maria appeared to consider her last words, before high kicking the gun out of her face and throwing a punch at the Black Widow. As soon as she’d fully extended her arm—hitting nothing but thin air, of course—she found her arm twisted painfully and her leg entangled with one of Black Widow’s. Then she found herself face down on the bed, the Widow on top of her, arm to Maria’s nape, the air slammed out of her even with the soft mattress cushioning her fall.

But Maria had seized the opportunity to turn her comms on. Her handler would now be able to hear her last words.

“Where’s the Grand Duchess, Black Widow?! What did you do to her?”

Agent Smith squawked in surprise at her words, before frantically telling her that reinforcements were on their way.

The Black Widow actually chuckled before grabbing the comms out of her ear, replacing it with her luscious lips and muttering an entertained, “Cute,” before dropping it on the ground. Then she released Maria and got off her, taking care to stomp on Maria’s comms as she got up.

Maria blinked at her in confusion, before jumping out of the bed and drawing her gun.

The Black Widow chuckled even more, clearly enjoying the upper hand she held over Maria even as she raised her arms in mock surrender. “I like you. I’m going to keep you.”

Maria makes a show of unclicking the safety and cocking the gun, “I’m not going to ask again, where is the Grand Duchess? What did you do to her?! What do you want with her?”

The Black Widow’s smirk was wicked. “Дорогая моя, we both know I can disarm you quicker than you can pull the trigger. But if you really must know… I didn’t do anything to the Grand Duchess of Russia that you are so concerned about. In fact, you’ve succeeded in your mission. She’s right here. Standing in front of you.”

Maria’s frown deepens in confusion.

The Widow’s gaze is fond now, “Such an innocent expression. Allow me to clarify: the Black Widow’s name is Natalia…” She slides closer to Maria, a cheeky grin on her face, “Alianova…” she walks past the gun Maria still pointed in her direction, “…Romanova”. She’s inches away from Maria now, eyes challenging, arms still raised in surrender. “So, why don’t you use that machine tucked in your jacket to confirm it?” Her grin turns from cocky, to playful. “I’ll even give you a drop of my Imperial blood.”

Shocked at this turn of events. Maria eyes the Widow warily, stowing her gun away obediently—she was nothing if sensible. If the Black Widow wanted to kill her, she would already have done it—and reaches for the machine that Coulson had handed her. She turns her attention away from the Widow for a second, and the next thing she knew, Natalia had booped her on the nose with a finger.

Maria flinched badly, before cursing when she realised that Natalia was waving her finger in front of Maria, complying with her promise to provide some blood for identification.  

“How old are you? You truly are adorable, you know?” Natalia asks as Maria did the necessary to obtain and test Natalia’s blood.

The results? Natalia was 98.95% related to the Romanovs.

Maria couldn’t believe her eyes. The Black Widow was… a lost princess?

“Now, now, why aren’t you bowing down to Her Imperial Highness?” Natalia asks.

“I’m not even Russian,” was Maria’s whiplash reaction.

Natalia scoffs, shrugs and disengages from Maria. “You don’t have to be to be Russian to bow down to royalty.”

Maria tries to make sense of the entire situation she was in and drastically failed.

“Will you come in with SHIELD quietly?” Maria asks.

“That depends… Are you going to be with SHIELD?”

“…Yes.”

“Then yes, I will.”

“You don’t even know why we’re bringing you in…” Maria grumbled.

“You’re going to offer me protection, weren’t you? But as you know, I don’t need protection. Nothing SHIELD can offer me, anyway. You’ve caught my attention, little one, and as I’ve said, I’m going to keep you.”

Maria didn’t know quite what to say, and thankfully, she didn’t have to.

“But, our time is up, dear. SHIELD is not the only one who’s found me, so it’s best to be on our way,” Natalia grabbed Maria’s arm and pushed her out the door and out the back door, snapping and activating Maria’s tracking beacon as she did.

“Hey! I’m supposed to be the one protecting you!” Maria cries. She immediately clamped her mouth shut at the uncharacteristic childishness of her words.

Romanova barely restrains herself from laughing out loud, and if the twitch of her fingers is any indication, the urge to pinch Maria’s cheeks.

“Hard to put my life in your hands when I don’t even know your name, cutie.”

“Really? You’re doing this no—” Maria sighs. “Maria. Maria Hill.”

“Okay, then, Maria,” Natalia’s self-satisfied smile made Maria’s blood _boil_. “Lead me to safety.”

“It’s Hill.” Maria says, uncomfortable with the Black Widow using her name.

“Okay, Maria.” Natalia returns.

Maria chooses to ignore that jibe, and attaches a silencer to her pistol, leading Natalia through the streets of Rome, keeping to alleys and sideways that she’d memorised before the mission, always making sure that she checked the roofs before turning a corner. She enters a main street, with plenty of cars parked at the side. Glancing about, she deems it clear, and was about to lead Natalia to the car that SHIELD had provided as transport to the rendezvous point on the outskirts of Rome, where the quinjet that had sent her here would also be waiting to send her back to the helicarrier.

Just as she was about to unlock the car, she stops in her tracks, and pauses to consider.

Natalia sidles up to her, glances at the car, “Yeah. I totally trust your instincts, too. Come on. Let’s go do some sight seeing.”

Maria opens her mouth to argue, but Natalia grabs on her arm and tugs her along the most crowded streets and attractions. Occasionally, they’ll see the local law enforcement just holding semi-automatics while patrolling the main attractions.

Maria wants to soak in the sights-- Rome truly is a gorgeous city: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Venetian Plaza, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill-- the city was simply soaked in history. Maria wanted to soak in the sights, so she was pissed that she had to look out for potential hostiles while hiding her gun in her jacket from local law enforcements, even while she guarded the _fucking_ Black Widow, who seemed to be on a personal mission to seduce her.

Oh, and by the way? The Black Widow was the long lost Grand Duchess, first in line to the Russian Imperial throne… should she wish to reclaim her birthright.

She wanted to call the mission FUBAR, but so far, no one had lost their lives as of yet, so that should count for _something._

It’s not four minutes before a bomb blast radiates from the general direction of where the SHIELD car was. Maria thanks her sixth sense and, oddly, Natalia’s encouragement for her to listen to her instincts, too.

Spotting a sniper perched up on the roof of one of the buildings in the direction leading directly of Piazza Venezia, so Maria grabs Natalia this time, and pushes her up the Palantine Hill.

“Hey, this is totally your terrain, don’t you think, Maria _Hill_?” Natalia sniggers.

Maria could strangle her.

They begin the climb up with Natalia making more digs at her, until her assigned handphone vibrates in her jacket.

“Mike, Hotel. Foxtrot?” She immediately recognised Agent Smith’s voice, asking if the mission had gone FUBAR.  

“Juliett Sierra.” She acknowledges her handler’s initials. “Negative, payload obtained. Vultures honing in on blood, designated transport has been compromised. Requesting for immediate evacuation, payload is not safe out in the open.”

Natalia fixes her with an annoyed stare the moment she mentions the word “payload”. Maria ignores her, choosing to scan the area for further hostiles.

“Roger. Arranging for immediate transport out with HQ. The Black Widow situation?”

“She’s co-operating for now,”

“Roger that,” Pause. “Alternate evac point at the park behind the Villa Medici. Quinjet Echo 65 Golf Delta’s ETA 1935 hours. You have 25 minutes to get the payload there, Agent. Good luck.”

The call terminates, and Maria pulls Natalia along, keeping to the trees and the shade that the setting sun affords them. Maria considers her options.

Traffic at peak hour is hell in Rome, so the quickest way to the evac point would actually be on foot to the damned garden.

She spots an armed person in a black bulletproof suit that hadn’t noticed their presence yet, focusing his gun on the main pathway, as though he was lying in wait for someone to pass. The insignia attached to his uniform is Hydra. Holding out an arm to stop Natalia in her tracks, she pulls out her gun and aims it. A shot later, the figure crumples to the ground, and Maria and Natalia are nowhere else to be seen in the vicinity.

Despite her relative inexperience with Rome, Maria had spent painful hours memorising a detailed map of Rome, and with that information, she tries directing Natalia to Piazza Venezia and eventually the Altare della Patria, but one look at the Piazza and it was a no go. So they kept to the slightly smaller roads, circled around the Pantheon, spied the Trevi Fountain- Maria snuck up behind another agent from the shadows, snapped his neck, and deposited the body in an inconspicuous corner before linking her arm with Natalia’s.

Natalia looked oddly at her.

“We’ll attract less attention if we appear to be friends.” the Black Widow appears unconvinced. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you there if it’s the last thing I do, Natalia.”

It was as if fate had dictated it, but Maria had managed to see all the attractions she had wanted to, while taking out the necessary people and protecting the Grand Duchess while doing so.

When they reached the garden that was relatively deserted, Maria finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the quinjet already there, waiting for them, her handler also there and waving for them to get on. The moment they saw the Black Widow running beside her, the guns went up and Maria had to shield Natalia with her body.

“Don’t shoot! She’s the Grand Duchess! I have confirmation!” She holds up the blood meter and waves it.

Maria subtly checks the registration number on the quinjet, before relaxing slightly when she realises it was the one chartered by Agent Smith.

The guns lower hesitantly. Maria and Natalia cautiously make their way to the quinjet, and just when the doors to the quinjet were about to close, a group of armed men appeared from the evening shadows and began shooting at the quinjet. Once again, Maria stands in front of Natalia, pushing her into safety, and returns fire in the few heartstopping seconds it takes for the bulletproof doors close.

They finally breathed a sigh of relief when the quinjet engages its stealth mode, and lifts off into the air, the sounds of gunshots slowly petering off.

 

* * *

 

Things just only get weirder with Natalia once they are at a constant altitude in the air.

After they have determined that yes, the Black Widow _is_ the last heir to the Russian Imperial bloodline, and yes, she would have already killed everyone on board should she have wanted to, they decided to all watch her, guns ready by their sides, while Maria merely watches her and counts the ammo she would need to justify for.

Visibly, Natalia grew a little antsy.

The Black Widow slides up to Maria, staring with a discomfitingly unwavering intensity. “You have such lovely eyes. And that _jawline._ Do you grate cheese on it?”

Another agent snorts, but Natalia continues.

“Your ears are utterly adorable. Can I bite it?”

Almost imperceptibly, meant only for Maria’s ears, “Don’t look so upset. We can always return to Rome on our own time, and we will have plenty of time to see everything you wanted to.”

Maybe it was just Maria’s imagination, but did Natalia actually sound _sincere_ in the last one?

Maria wasn’t a fool. She’s heard of the stories about the Black Widow’s succubic ways, and Maria would rather be caught watching hardcore gay porn in front of the entire SHIELD than to be caught in one of the Widow’s webs of seduction.

“Your words are bordering on harassment, Natalia.”

Natalia gasps, “You know I’d never! I just like seeing you squirm.” Natalia laughs. “I made _such_ a good choice in keeping you. But I just guess I’ll have to go the boring route and _romance_ you.”

Maria’s eyebrows shot up, before she meets Natalia’s challenging stare with one of her own. And for a minute, they were locked in a contested battle of wills.

“What is your _game,_ Natalia? Surrendering so easily to a junior agent you could have killed ten times over?” Maria hissed under her breath.

Natasha’s expression was open, showing everything and nothing at the same time, “You.” she answers simply.

Maria frowns, “What game are you playing? Are you going to bring SHIELD down from the inside? Steal some information for the Red Room? What exactly are you pulling?”

Natalia stares at her, then slowly, without ever so much blinking or losing eye contact with Maria, grabs her leg and tugs gently.

Maria groans and leans back in her seat even as Natalia’s laughter rings out in the confines of the Quinjet.

 

* * *

 

 “Agent Hill, would you like to explain why the Black Widow is standing in the middle of my helicarrier?” Fury asked when Maria and the extraction team arrived in the hangar.

“Sir, I’ve done as the mission brief has instructed. You’re looking at the last descendant of the Imperial Romanov line.” Maria stated.

“Well…” Natalia interjects, “I did have a brother, but I killed him a few years ago.”

Maria nods seriously, “Sir, I believe that our intelligence is severely lacking. The file provided neglected to inform that the heir apparent to the Russian Throne is the Black Widow. They’ve failed to say that both the Red Room and Hydra were after Natalia, and that that the informant was working with the Black Widow.”

“Hey! Pablo was just a friend who wanted to get me laid! He’s not working with me!”

Maria only glares at Natalia, “He pushed me into the room with you pointing a gun at me!”

Fury holds a hand up, quelling their squabbling, looking between the two of them before settling on Maria, “So… Agent Hill, you fended Red Room and Hydra off by yourself?”

Maria’s gaze settles to her shoes, “Romanova… Romanova helped.”

Natalia’s smug smirk held just a tint of pride, “You noticed?”

“Well, I’m not deaf, nor am I blind. Yes, I noticed you taking down the stray agents that I... may have missed.” Maria snaps, almost annoyed.

“I must say, Hill, for your first solo mission, you have conducted yourself well. Now, go to debrief with your handler. I will have a word with the Black Widow. Dismissed.”

“Please, Fury, my name is Natalia Romanova. Natasha Romanoff if you want to anglicise and bastardise my name.” Natasha said, her words dripping in sarcasm. “Also, I think Maria should be there for this talk,”

“It’s _Hill.”_ Maria hisses.

“Okay, Mar-mar.” Natasha sniggers.

Maria only throws her hands up in frustration.

“Sure, Natasha.” Fury replies, rolling his one good eye, and motions for the two of them to follow him into his office.

 

* * *

  

“So, Ms Romanoff, we’ll work with you to reach a consensus of maximum benefits to us both. If you want to be de-programmed, we will have our best doctors and psychiatrists attend to you. If you want to reinstall your rule, we can put you in contact with the relevant people, and being work on fostering better relations with Russia. If you want to work for SHIELD as the Black Widow, we certainly will have a place for you. We’ll give you some time to decide, but I’d like to think that we’re offering you a new, stable beginning and an out from the Black Widow’s current ‘freelancing’ status.” Fury offers.

“Are you offering me anything I want?”

“Within reason of what SHIELD can offer, of course.”

A sly smile takes over and Natalia just points to Maria. "Her. I want her."

The shocked silence rings in everyone’s ears.

"She's just a junior agent." Fury says

Maria grits her teeth, _statement of fact, not an insult._

"Okay, then just put me in the same junior team as her. Send me on the same missions as her." Natasha offers

"But that would be a waste of your talents--"

Maria was beginning to feel very offended.

Natasha shakes her head, "Her. Want her. Her and me, or no me at all."

Fury sighs. “Fucking hell... Hill!”

Hill snaps to attention. “Sir, yes, sir!” She internally cringes at the sight of Romanova’s barely concealed grin.

“I fully expect you to rise through the ranks of SHIELD to be one of our top agents. If you keep our greatest asset in the Black Widow at grunt work level for more than a few months, I will have your _hide._ ”

“Yes, sir!”

“And you Romanova. I want not a single harrassment claim from Agent Hill, understand?”

Natalia’s face held as much surprise, with a modicum of  growing respect as the face of the Black Widow would allow to show. Natalia nods, “Yes, sir.”

“Hill, dismissed.”

“Yes sir!” Maria stands and leaves the room.

“You’re a cunning man, Fury.” Natasha notes, “You didn’t tell that baby agent that SHIELD had already contacted the Black Widow, reaffirming that she was the last of the Romanova line?” Natasha asks, “You didn’t tell her that we already had a deal?”

“I see a lot of potential in Agent Hill, Natasha, and as much as she’s still a baby field agent now, I see that her talents lie in more tactical aspects of SHIELD’s work. You don’t know it, but she can plan a mean mission. However, her fatal flaw is that she comes up with so many plans with the information provided to her, that she can’t improvise when placed on the spot. This solo mission is to teach her that sometimes, we don’t have perfect information available, and things change. So she should be as ready to react, as to follow through with her plan.”

Natasha searches Nick’s face, “You’re beefing her up to be your second, aren’t you?”

“Eventually,” Nick leans in, whispers conspiratorially, “I’ll deny it if you ever repeat this to anyone.”

Natasha shakes her head, “You won this one, Fury. When I told you to convince me to join SHIELD, I never expected you to send a wide-eyed baby agent who was almost on the verge of tears because she thought she’d failed in keeping the last princess of Russia safe. Then she took on the Black Widow because she wasn’t going down with a fight.” Natasha laughs lowly for a bit. “You should have seen her face when she found out that I was her charge. Then she was so adamant on protecting the Black Widow. I told her, and I’ll tell you: I’m keeping her. My ledger is dripping red, and maybe, maybe by protecting her, I can wipe the slate a little cleaner than it is.”

Nick chuckles along with her, “Maria is one of the rare few within SHIELD who cares. Between the both of us, I’ve seen her thrown herself in front of civilians to keep them safe from aliens and terrorists alike. It was what got my eye on her in the first place. Maria is one of the special few who embodies the values of SHIELD.”

“Aw, Fury,” Natasha coos, “You like her, too! Is she your favourite junior agent?”

“Yes,” Nick cocks an eyebrow at her, “But I will deny anything about having a favourite junior agent. Hill’s just a talented individual whom I am willing to groom.”

“What if I tell people about your favourite baby agent?” Natasha teases.

“Who do you think people will trust the word of? The Director of SHIELD, or the Black Widow?”

Their eyes met, and they both smirk.

“Plus,” Nick notes, “It’s not like she’s not _your_ favourite baby agent too.”

“Touche, Fury, touche.”

  

* * *

  

With what can only be described as a kitten faithfully following her mother about, Natalia trailed behind Maria’s every move like a shadow, feigning innocence whenever she wanted to be caught in the act. Years later, SHIELD legend will have it that nothing passes Assistant Director Hill because of all the training she had detecting where the Black Widow was when following her around the helicarrier.

Gradually, with the eventual de-programming of ‘Natalia Alianova Romanova’, she decided to go by the name of ‘Natasha Romanoff’, and a whole myriad of names undercover. But only ‘Nat’ to a select few loved ones. Any other person who tried to call her that received either a stern warning or a punch to… vital areas.

Maria, on the other hand, flourished under Fury’s guidance and the competitive prodding of Natasha.

Friendship between the two women blossomed-- After spending a whole host of missions together, they gradually learned from one another: Maria, on how to improvise on missions, and Natasha, on how to go in ready, with watertight plans to lessen the possibility of a mission going FUBAR.

 

* * *

 

 It takes Maria four years of Natasha’s dedicated following, and a bullet meant for Maria taken by Natasha, to finally realise that the woman was sincere in her pursuits. And another three for her to fully return Natasha’s feelings.

When the time came, Natasha and Maria both sat down with Fury and came clean about their relationship, worried about the potential conflict of interest. He clasps them both on their shoulders, tears almost leaking out of his eye, and said, “Great timing, girls,” and pulls out two letters from his ever existing black coat. “You’ve both been promoted. Maria, should you accept this post, which I am hoping you will, you will be Assistant Director of SHIELD. Second only to me. Natasha, should you choose to accept, you will be a senior specialist field agent. These promotions will move the both of you clean out of each others chain of command. And you will be free to pursue whatever relationship you want with one another.”  

The three of them did _not_ hug. Shut up.

 

* * *

  

After they bought their house with white picket fence, Maria and Natasha were the perfect suburban wives when their duties did not call for them.

Maria would ask Natasha to run a certain errand for her, and Natasha would occasionally fall into their pre-marriage days, replying with an, “Okay, _Hill.”_

“Whatever, _Hill._ ” Maria would shoot back, and Natasha would drop everything on hand, proud glint in her eye, to kiss her _wife_ squarely on the lips, often repeating “Mrs Natasha _Hill,_ ” like a mantra.

Occasionally squabbling, always loving, they were the envy of the neighbourhood.

Natasha, in particular, had a penchant for doing over-the-top, grand gestures of love for Maria, and the whole neighbourhood would notice.

One day, a neighbour, Tina Kennard, was hanging her laundry while Maria sunned her sheets. They greeted one another, and both of them leaned on the fence separating their property, and Tina asks Maria, “How do you keep the spice alive in your marriage, Maria? Natasha is wonderful, and she’s still so affectionate, what with those grand gestures of love...I consider myself lucky when Bette comes home and isn’t ‘too tired’. Where’d you get your wife, Maria? Where can I get one like yours? The best in town, I mean.”

Maria laughs heartily, “I found her, I saved her. She’s a rescue. I guess she just took to me, and no, you can’t have her. She’s mine.”

A snort drifts over to them from the direction of Maria’s laundry, and the two wives look over at a horribly hidden Natasha behind their bedsheets.

They both raised an eyebrow at one another, before Maria fires a parting shot, “And she better treat me like the absolute _royalty_ I am!”

Natasha falls into a fit of giggles.

**Author's Note:**

> Translation:  
> Милая моя- My darling.  
> Дорогая моя- My dear.
> 
> Author headcanon: Fury likes to see Hill snap to attention, but he loves the way she immediately dies internally and tries to hide it. She eventually grows out of it. But it’s real endearing while it lasted. 
> 
> Also, poll question: what are your thoughts on Pablo? Was he just helping a girl get laid, or was he in on it with the Black Widow? People who theorised right will earn virtual gelato from me. 
> 
> And look. The Black Widow is smooth. She’s a flirt, a master seductress with the ability to hook anyone around her talented little finger.... Me, on the other hand? I’m a potato. My idea of seduction begins with food and (sincere) compliments. Maybe a slow walk in the moonlight while talking about astronomy or something. There’s a reason why I have been single for over two decades. I’m as flirty as water is flavourful, as thunder is silent, as the sun is cold. So please forgive Natasha’s inability to flirt for her life in this one. This one is all on me.


End file.
